rapid determination of water pollutants

8/3/2019 Rapid Determination of Water Pollutants

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Rapid Determination of Water

Pollutants

Application Note

Introduction

The requirement for a rigorous yet straightforward means of testing the quality oftap and surface water is a growing need of national and international importance,as efforts continue to monitor and improve the quality of this vital ecologicalresource. One research initiative is the Rhine Basin Program, an internationalcollaboration designed to facilitate better assessment of environmentally relevantparameters, which take the program from simple data generation and acquisition,right through to a better understanding of this complicated ecosystem. Thisinitiative will provide Europeans, in particular, and nations in general, with a basisfor supplying better water quality.

Part of the rst step, the use of new analytical concepts, is under way at the

Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Free University of Amsterdam. A teamguided by Brinkman and Lingeman1 has established a rapid means of determiningtrace level polar pollutants in water by isocratic LC with UV detection. An on-linepreconcentration step is required for these determinations, and the use of twoprecolumns allows rapid analysis with minimal sample preparation. One precolumntraps solutes by means of hydrophobic interactions and the other permits capture ofbasic pollutants as ion-pairs on a sodium dodecyl sulfate-loaded stationary phase.The use of a polymeric PLRP-S analytical column allows selection from a wide rangeof mobile phase pH and composition, while permitting easy clean-up after injectionof very dirty or strongly adsorbing samples.

Author

Linda LloydAgilent Technologies, Inc.


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Results and DiscussionSample Preparation

10 mL samples were preconcentrated at 2 mL/min onprecolumns in series. This was followed by a wash step

of 1.3 mL (at 0.5 mL/min) of 10% acetonitrile, 90% 10mMphosphate buffer at pH 3. Subsequently, each type of solutewas transferred to its particular analytical column system.

0 50min

Conditions

Polar analytesColumn: PLRP-S 100 5 m, 250 x 4.6 mm (p/n PL1512-5500)Eluent: 50% Acetonitrile, 50% 10mM Phosphate buffer, pH 3Flow Rate: 1.0 mL/minDetection: UV, 230 nm

Basic analytes

Column: PLRP-S 100 5 m, 150 x 4.6 mm (p/n PL1111-3500)Eluent: 20% Acetonitrile, 80% 10mM Phosphate buffer, pH 8Flow Rate: 1.0 mL/minDetection: UV, 230 nm

Figure 1. Preconcentration of 10 mL of River Rhine water spiked with

25 g/L of 13 pollutants.

10

11

12

13

9

8

7

6

5

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Peak Identication

1. Simazine

2. 2,4-DP

3. Bentazone

4. MCPP

5. Atrazine

6. Diuron

7. 2,6-dimethylaniline

8. 2-nitrophenol

9. 2,6-dichlorophenol

10. 2-chloroaniline

11. DNOC

12. Metolachlor

13. Alachlor


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www.agilent.com/chem

This information is subject to change without notice.

Agilent Technologies, Inc. 2011

Published in UK, May 12, 2011

5990-8209EN

Conclusion

Isocratic HPLC using PLRP-S columns allows the rapidquantication of pesticides and herbicides in water. As a

single column, PLRP-S operates across the entire range ofHPLC eluents. It is chemically stable and physically robust,and so it is possible to switch between organic modiers,such as ACN and tetrahydrofuran, and eluent pH 0 to 14.

Reference

[1] E. R. Brouwer, I. Liska, R. B. Geerdink, P. C. M. Frintrop,W. H. Mulder, H. Lingeman, U. A. Th. Brinkman (1991)Determination of polar pollutants in water using an on-line liquid chromatographic preconcentration system.Chromatographia, 32, 445-452.

rapid determination of water pollutants

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